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Screenwriting Course

Started by Demolition Squid, April 23, 2015, 09:28:10 PM

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Demolition Squid

I'm currently taking a screenwriting course on alternate Saturdays. This week will mark the 4th session - and when we're finally supposed to have the tools we need to start developing a script rather than working on the preliminary stuff.

Another guy on the course is also unable to make it this week and he's asked me to type up my notes. I figure I'll spend sunday typing up all of my notes so I have an electronic record too. Would anyone here be interested in them if I cross-posted? If not I'll only bother to make this week's useful to someone else, but if so I might as well go along and do it all at once!
Vast and Roaring Nipplebeast from the Dawn of Soho

Junkenstein

Posting as curious to know more.
Nine naked Men just walking down the road will cause a heap of trouble for all concerned.

LMNO


Cain


Demolition Squid

My early notes are a lot more barebones than the ones I took when I knew other people would be reading them, but here we go!

It is also worth noting that although everything here is stated very definitively, the course runner has been very clear that these 'rules' are not set in stone - but the course is about getting the tools you need to work as a professional in the industry. You can play around and do whatever you want, and sometimes you'll have a stroke of genius which defies these 'rules', but that doesn't make them any less useful to learn - especially as a novice.

Introduction

There are three narration families.

Classical: Linear storytelling in which rules are established and followed, seen through the eyes of one character in order to allow us to penetrate their mind.

Non-Classical: A more modern form which is concerned with showing how the author sees the world – there are no rules which must remain set in stone. The audience is often deliberately alienated and prevented from identifying with any particular character.

Documentary: Purports to show the world as it actually is with as little author input as possible.

This course is primarily concerned with teaching classical screenwriting.

Classical Narration
A continuous chain of cause and effect is known to the author and usually the audience.
Consistent rules which do not change.
1 Protagonist
Protagonist is active.
Closed Ending
Linear time

Non-Classical
No logic.
No consistency
Several or No protagonist
Often a passive protagonist
Open Ending – No attempt to resolve a story.
Non-Linear time is common.

Note that these rules are per storyline not necessarily per script

Non-Classical elements have become increasingly common in otherwise classical scripts – particularly flashbacks/flashforwards, but most of the elements of classical storytelling have not changed for thousands of years.

Basic Glossary
Protagonist – Main Character – MC
World – "Group" – Setting
Goal – Desire to be obtained by the Protagonist
Obstacle – Some reason the goal is not met immediately.
Solution – How the protagonist overcomes the obstacle.
Resolution – How it is all tied up.
Drama – The discrepancy between what is expected and what actually happens.

There are two goals in every story – what is Wanted – the explicit goal of the character, and what is Needed – the inner and implicit aims which make up the more compelling subtext to the story.

A story can only be successful if it says more than it shows – it is by engaging with and unpacking the story that the audience feels like participants rather than voyeurs.

The Log Line

A log line is an elevator pitch summary which is used to boil down a story to its key, compelling elements. It almost always takes the form:
(Name), an (adjectives) (function) in a (setting) tries to (achieve goal) despite (obstacle) (hint as to solution/further obstacles/resolution)
All stories need a Goal and an Obstacle. If you have these two elements, you have the engine which drives the rest of the plot.

A Goal implies a Want and a Need – sometimes the Need can be the obstacle, sometimes the Main Character can be after the wrong Goal and change it over the course of the story.

We must understand the motivation behind the goal – so long as we understand why the character is seeking what they are seeking, we can empathise with them. If we don't understand what the goal is, we lose interest in the story.

The main character in a story is the character who makes the most meaningful decisions – this can be useful to keep in mind when trying to understand stories.

Character traits should be chosen to heighten conflict.

What is at stake in a story drives the intent of the character.

There are 9 types of story.
1.   Monster in the House – There is some sort of unstoppable doom coming to the protagonist as a result of their sins. Very common in horror stories.
2.   Whydunit – There is a mystery to be solved! The reason behind the crime is more important than the specifics of the crime, thus whydunit instead of whodunit.
3.   Superhero – Someone is placed apart from the common man by an extraordinary gift and uses it to make the world a better place.
4.   Quest – A journey is undertaken; the changes that the character undergoes on the journey is the focus, not the destination.
5.   John Doe in Trouble – An everyman is thrust into a life or death situation and must rise to meet the challenge. Or die.
6.   Buddy/Love Story – Two characters complete one another but are kept apart/there is friction to be resolved.
7.   Underdog – Helpless individual is thrust up against the establishment and has to struggle against their social status/relative powerlessness.
8.   Rite of Passage – Stories about life's major conflicts – adolescence, mid life crises, death and addiction.
9.   I vs The Group – Someone struggles to become accepted by a clique.


Main Characters
Characterization is what makes a story more interesting than the log line. Any story can be boiled down to its very basics and sound dull; it is the characters which elevate it.

Our story should be the worst case scenario for the main character.

We must establish that there is a chance for a good outcome – but everything should be difficult and there should always be a price to be paid.

The stakes are used to show the commitment of the character to the goal.

As a visual medium, the first few seconds of film should attempt to establish the goal of the story and set the tone for the audience – every small action taken tells us something about the kind of person we are trying to relate to, especially early on.

First impressions are important in real life and in movies!

The main character is the lynchpin of the plot; a bad plot can be made compelling with a good main character, a good plot can never survive a bad main character.
Remember that what we do (and how we do it) is a huge part of 'who we are'.

The main character must be the most effective one for the goal/obstacle challenge – they must be active.

There are three common archetypes for main characters (although some are blends of the three)

1.   'Cinderella' – Those who are victims in their situation
2.   'Aladdin' – Those who have issues they must resolve (criminals etc)
3.   'Don Quixote' – Those who are driven by ideals

There are three types of conflict.

1.   Inner – Conflict with the self.
2.   Personal – Conflict with friends/family.
3.   External – Conflict with strangers/authority/'The Group'

There are five levels of intimacy. These relate to intimacies you want your audience to feel for your character, not between characters (although the relationships between characters are an important way of building intimacies)

1.   Intellectual – What is their outlook on life? Can we relate to their way of seeing the world?
2.   Emotional – What are their emotions? Can we relate to how they feel?
3.   Physical – How do they look? Do we feel sympathy/empathy/jealousy?
4.   Sexual – What is their love life like? Do we understand it?
5.   Spiritual – What is their inner life? Their relationship to God/the community/a higher power?

It is useful to think of how the character acts in the three spheres of life to help build these intimacies.

1.   At home – What's their family situation like? Where/how do they live?
2.   At Work – How do they make their living?
3.   At play – Friends? Hobbies? How do they relax?

This should be the focus of the opening (10-15 minutes). You won't cover everything – otherwise it risks feeling like a catalogue – but you should cover what is relevant to the story.

Character flaws are a useful tool for building empathy – they are essential to making characters relatable.

Watched this video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GTUgUEpqBrA

This was coupled with the log line 'Worm transforms into a monster'.

Whilst a decent log line in theory, in practice there's nothing interesting about a worm – we need more character traits which is what we're working on going forward. The character, not the situation, is what makes a story really great.

The situation is the objective drama

The drama arising from the main character (subject) is the subjective drama

Subjective drama is founded and reliant on what the audience knows/expects from the main character.

Three Act Story

It can be useful to think of a character's arc as being split into three phases (or worlds) which generally follow a few particular common threads.
Inciting Incident

World 1

"Normal" Life
Familiar
Perhaps frustrated
In denial of any issues
This is the status quo
Usually unconscious of goals/needs

World 2

Extraordinary situation
Mirror image – nothing seems familiar.
Fearful/Angry
Forced to address issues
No access to friends/relations or they can't help
Fully conscious of goals/needs


World 3

Combines the best of world one and world two to create a new, better character.

The inciting incident is the event which forced the character to confront and address their issues – both conscious and unconscious.  This is plot point 1.

World 1 is comfortable but not 'right'. World 2 gets gradually worse and worse – until the character hits rock bottom, and finds a spark of hope. This is plot point 2 or the 'culmination moment'.

In the final stage we see the character has been transformed into a new self, better equipped to deal with the reality of their situation ad having resolved their issues.

This is the three act structure and it is very difficult to write a good story which does not follow this progression arc for the main character. This is because the three act structure mirrors the way we approach real life problem solving.

W1      W2                  W3
Denial > Acceptance > Outcome

World 2 should take approximately 50% of the screen time.

The rule still applies – confront your main character with the worst case scenario at every possible turn. Try to give them a mirror in secondary characters, hold up their worst excesses to revolt them and the qualities they lack to make them feel guilty.

Plot Point 1 signals the end of act 1 and shows the Main Character's intent to engage with the ongoing plot – at this point they begin to fight back against their situation rather than accepting it.

The character arc should follow the same logical progression as the story arc.

There should also be points where the reason for the character's motivations are implied or made explicit, but this should be handled carefully – avoid being deterministic (oh they are hurt because of this particular childhood trauma) – interpretation can be a powerful tool and audiences react badly to what they perceive as an 'unrelatable' explicit connection between events in the past determining events in the future.

Vast and Roaring Nipplebeast from the Dawn of Soho

Demolition Squid

Less notes than usual this week because most of the course was spent watching short films/discussing participant's story ideas.

Synopses

The log line nail the basic elements down, and a synopsis then expands on them. We are mostly concerned with the Writer's Work in Progress as opposed to the synopsis used to sell the project to producers or marketing teams.

The aim of the Writer's WIP Synopsis is to have a visual picture of the story – focus on what appear on the screen and try to keep those elements that won't to a minimum.

It is also important to keep the end product in mind – a good synopsis gives you a broad idea of what the film will look like, without a great deal of specific scenes, whilst keeping in mind that a movie can't go on forever (you've got a limited amount of time to work with!)

It can be helpful to write a new 1 page synopsis during the process to clarify the project as it develops.

The treatment is the stage where you start breaking things down into specific scenes rather than a broad overview. If you keep coming up with vague sentences which you intend to elaborate in specific scenes (e.g – the character has a rich inner life) it is helpful to advance to this stage and sketch out a few scenes to nail down specifics on how that will look visually.

Forces of Antagonism

There are three types of conflict – Inner, Personal and External  -which are collectively taken as the forces of antagonism.

A good way to determine which forces of antagonism are most important is to decide who or what 'wins' at the end of the story. This will usually shed some light on which type of conflict is the real centre of the story.

The Negative Value of the story is the force of antagonism to be overcome.
The Positive Value is simply the opposite of the negative value.
E.G – Not being onself vs The Truth.

The following questions help define the Forces of Antagonism:
What could make this situation worse?
What wins at the end?
What is wrong with the main character?

Good characters can elevate a dull story, but bad characters will always ruin a good story. Is it even possible to have a good story with bad characters?
Vast and Roaring Nipplebeast from the Dawn of Soho

Eater of Clowns

Interesting read, thanks for typing up your notes for us.
Quote from: Pippa Twiddleton on December 22, 2012, 01:06:36 AM
EoC, you are the bane of my existence.

Quote from: The Good Reverend Roger on March 07, 2014, 01:18:23 AM
EoC doesn't make creepy.

EoC makes creepy worse.

Quote
the afflicted persons get hold of and consume carrots even in socially quite unacceptable situations.

Demolition Squid

Quote from: Eater of Clowns on May 12, 2015, 07:31:44 PM
Interesting read, thanks for typing up your notes for us.

Thanks EoC.

I've got last session's notes, and there'll be another session tomorrow. Last session was weird because it involved acting which was terrible.

Plus side: the tutor seems to really like my stuff, and has given me a ton of helpful notes. The other people in my writing group are also very positive. We're past the halfway mark now, which is frightening, but I'm feeling positive that I can use the stuff I'm producing here and the skills I'm learning to get an agent - which will hopefully be step one in plan 'Do something I enjoy for a living'.
Vast and Roaring Nipplebeast from the Dawn of Soho

Demolition Squid

Just as an update - there'll be a delay in continuing to transcribe these notes.

Work is hitting me with a big shitty stick, and I'm spending most of the time I'm not working trying to get my treatment into some sort of useful shape. I'm approximately halfway done with it but I was hoping to have a first draft ready by wednesday (a first draft will not be ready by wednesday).

One thing I found very interesting in the last session was the tutor saying that he would - as a professional - never work on any one project for more than three weeks unless a contract deadline made it unavoidable, he'd move on to something else and then return to it, so as to avoid getting too caught up in details/burning out on the project.

But if I'm going to have this thing in first draft form by the end of the course I need to, you know, work on it - which he acknowledged is difficult when you also work full time. :P
Vast and Roaring Nipplebeast from the Dawn of Soho